With the growth of on-line shopping, more and more merchandise items are being packaged and shipped. Rather than handle it all themselves, on-line sellers can outsource various aspects of the parcel preparation process. For example, one challenging aspect of parcel ship in is international delivery processing. International shipping can require special knowledge of shipping fees, customs compliance, duties and taxes. Thus, an opportunity arises for third party service providers to process parcels originating from multiple on-line sellers, and to gain various efficiencies and economy of scale while also improving the on-line shopping experience.
When working on packages originating from multiple sellers, the service provider must be sensitive to any individual requirements that the sellers may have. For example, different sellers may want their own special packing tape used on the exterior of their packages. Such special tape will typically include the seller's name and logo. However, with different types of tape being used, the possibility arises that a worker could put the wrong tape on a package. This could result in confusion on the part of the recipient, and potentially hurt the reputation of the seller.